


A Prank Guide, courtesy of Louis

by MyEnglishRose



Series: A Couple Of Guides, courtesy of Louis [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff without Plot, Gen, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Implied Sexual Content, Jealous Harry, Louis Tomlinson-centric, M/M, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Protective Harry, horror movies, still yeah I know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:33:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27089446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyEnglishRose/pseuds/MyEnglishRose
Summary: It’s spooky season, Louis might not be as enthusiastic for it as he is with Christmas, but he always loves a good prank that light-heartedly scares others. Which is why this year he’s got a special plan to scare Harry and he’s gonna need the help of his three other boys.Or. Halloween, more ot5 shenanigans and Louis showing a bit more of his mischievous side.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan & Zayn Malik & Liam Payne & Harry Styles & Louis Tomlinson
Series: A Couple Of Guides, courtesy of Louis [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977181
Kudos: 65





	A Prank Guide, courtesy of Louis

**Author's Note:**

> so uh, it goes from fluff to naughty to fluff pretty fast which genuinely wasn’t the initial intent, but here we are! Writing this while watching the different parts of the fandom fight each other on Twitter was quite the cognitive dissonance experience, ngl  
> By the way, you don't need to read the previous work to understand this, really, it is pretty much a Halloween special stand-alone, but if you want around 20k more of pointless ot5 fluff like it's 2013 again, feel free to read the cuddle guide ~ 
> 
> Here's the [Tumblr post](https://lwtisloved.tumblr.com/post/632615008373702656/), here's my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/darlinlou), don't hesitate to drop by 🤍

The first part of the plan is to convince the others to help him. Zayn and Niall immediately jumped on the proposition, apparently pretty eager to mess with Harry. Liam, however, is a lot more cautious about it.

Being the one usually at the end of Louis’ harmless pranks, he obviously is delighted to hear he won’t be the target this year but the idea of bothering Harry is oddly worrying him.

“Have you seen him when he’s upset Lou?!” Liam frantically explains and Louis truly wonders what type of shit he’s seen or even experienced when he and Harry are boxing together.

“Yeah and? He’d never hurt me.” When Harry is upset he tends to double his productivity while working out to distract himself. It isn’t exactly healthy, or at least Louis thinks so, thus he suggested Harry should try yoga — and then meditation when they both realised Harry wasn’t that flexible and tended to get more upset instead due to his frustration of not being able to maintain the same position for more than three seconds.

“No, but I will have to deal with him,” Liam counters. “Loubear, we’re talking about his car, he’d _kill_ us.”

“I’ll take the brunt of it, don’t worry!” Louis dismisses. “Plus he’d love the makeover.”

By the look on Liam’s face, he really doesn’t think so.

“Why can’t we just trap him in a haunted house or something?”

“Because he doesn’t get scared, you know that,” Louis mumbles. And it is true. Louis has never been a fan of Halloween, really. Every October he feels like he needs to walk on eggshells when going through social media to avoid any jumpscare of any sort. He is pretty much the only one in the house who doesn’t particularly like horror movies either with how easily he gets scared with just the music quickening up. He likes psychological and thriller movies a lot more as they don’t rely just on visual gore and the same clichés over and over again, but he is the only one who thinks so. Even Zayn, fellow psychology student, would rather watch those slasher movies instead because he deems them more fun.

Harry, on the other hand, revels in those horror movies. Revels in the October feels in general. He keeps saying he doesn’t care that much about the holiday yet he’s always the one who puts the most effort in his costumes. He’s always the one who makes sure they have tons of candies for the trick-or-treaters. He’s always the one choosing which movie they’re gonna watch each year. So if Louis wants to prank him, he’s gonna need to rely on something else than pure fear.

Thinking back, this might be a better plan for April’s Fools Day but Harry would expect it and that would ruin the fun.

“He’d get scared if something happened to you though,” Liam suggests and that makes Louis stop.

“You know what? You just gave me an idea.”

“Oh no.”

“Your fault.” Louis sticks his tongue out. “I’m gonna need to make a few more calls… I’m sure Niall and Zayn will also love the idea.”

Liam just sighs and slaps himself on the forehead. Louis holds back a giggle.

“Don’t traumatise him,” Liam warns.

“You’re there to make sure I won’t, aren’t you?”

“I might need the others’ help.”

“Good luck, Niall and Zayn are way crueller than me and you know it.”

Liam groans again.

-: ✧ :-

Zayn is _ecstatic_. He is practically buzzing on his feet and Louis is slightly worried he might just pass out from the excitement.

“You don’t _understand_!” Zayn exclaims. “We’re gonna _end_ him, I can’t wait!”

“Woah there!” Louis tries to calm him down by grabbing him by the shoulders. “You sound awfully happy.”

“I gotta get back at him after last year, mate, I still can’t take out my brushes without finding glitters sprinkled in there.” At that, Louis wills his face to remain as neutral as possible. What Zayn doesn’t know is that he actually helped Harry for that but he isn’t about to dig his own grave there so, the blame is fully on Harry for now then.

“Right, but if you act like this in front of him he’ll know we’re planning something,” Louis reminds him. “So please chill out.”

Zayn vigorously shakes his head. “I literally can’t.”

Louis huffs out a laugh — he’s got to admit, Zayn’s excitement is contagious, no matter how kind of messed up it actually is when truly thinking about it. Though, Louis guesses, this is the first time his target is Harry which is bound to be interesting and exciting for the other boys. He didn’t really have the opportunity before what with Harry not really spending time with them at the beginning, and then, when they started dating, he wanted to see first what got to Harry’s nerves or not. Looking back, as ironic as it is, he knew that out of all the boys, his own boyfriend was the one he knew the least since they spent the least time together before actually dating so— he needed to test the waters first.

He also knew that, unlike Niall or Liam, Harry would not hesitate to reciprocate the prank. Being his boyfriend absolutely does not give him immunity and he is aware of that.

“You’re gonna need to stay locked in your studio whenever he’s there or you’re gonna blow it,” Louis says with a hint of a smile.

“Nah he’ll just think I’m excited for Halloween.”

Alright, fair enough, Louis concedes. Much like Liam, Zayn takes pride in his costumes, and unlike Harry, he doesn’t try to deny it. Plus, since that one painting session where he wanted Louis with a full face of makeup on but had to reluctantly ask Harry for help, Zayn has found a new love in makeup and face paint. Louis is still his canvas though, so the painting sessions usually take even longer than usual now — to Harry’s dismay. To the others as well but Harry is more vocal about it.

“You know what? We should have matching costumes for the party, to piss him off even more,” Zayn suggests, back to bouncing on his feet.

“Why are you like this.”

“That’s not a no.”

“It is tempting, but I’m also planning on giving his car a makeover and I don’t want to push it too far, besides, I already have my costume planned and it is part of the plan.”

Zayn pouts at that. “Fine, guess I’ll have to stick with creepy paintings.”

“Don’t act like you’re not gonna sell them for a good price once we’re done scaring the shit out of Harry.”

He doesn’t get a reply, just a nonchalant shrug.

-: ✧ :-

Niall has been working on sound design and most importantly sound effects, more than composing lately so upon hearing Louis’ plan to scare Harry, he was just as excited as Zayn to put his artistic input into it.

Louis just wasn’t expecting to be put into Niall’s makeshift recording studio in the corner of his room.

“Excuse me, you want me to what?” he asks again.

“Just laugh,” Niall replies, the _duh_ going unsaid.

“Again, why?”

“Well, I need a creepy child laugh and your voice is the highest. I’ll just tweak it a little to give it the _spook_ effect, y’know?”

“You think my laugh is creepy? Fuck you,” Louis grumbles under his breath.

“Perfect goblin noises,” Niall comments as he seems to be typing something on his computer, pressing his enter key with a satisfying nod to himself.

“Hey!”

“I’m just teasing ya!” the Irish lad chastises with a large grin. “But for real, your laugh is adorable, don’t worry, but I’d rather distort yours than use a generic laugh I can get online that Harry will recognise without any issue since they’re overused.”

Louis pouts. “Alright, that’s fair. I can’t laugh in demand without it sounding robotic though, I know it’s difficult for you but say something funny,” he continues, holding back a smile when Niall strongly rolls his eyes. It kinda looked like it hurt too.

“Eh, I got a better idea,” Niall counters, grabbing the fancy quill Zayn gave him for his birthday last month, a wicked grin back on his lips.

“Uh,” is the only thing Louis manages to let out before a small giggle escape his lips as Niall tickles his neck with the feather of the quill.

Except Niall doesn’t stop even if they have now various samples to work with and Harry later ends up finding the two boys tangled in the wires on the floor, still laughing. Harry doesn’t question it, just picks his boyfriend up despite Niall’s protests and walks away. Louis doesn’t mind.

-: ✧ :-

Liam ends up really enjoying planning the whole thing with Louis. It doesn’t surprise the latter in the slightest. Liam loves Halloween, he loves planning and he loves having things under his control which basically means that he likes to be able to keep an eye on Louis to make sure he doesn’t do anything too drastic.

“So you still want to also mess with his car?” Liam asks as they finished putting on paper how the evening of The Scare will go down to the last second — courtesy of Liam himself. Louis is there to fill the gap if something goes slightly wrong so he’s already got various ideas in his head to improvise with.

“I do,” Louis confirms.

“You do know it can take up to a week.”

“They said three days.”

“Still, how do you expect him to not use it for that amount of time?”

“Don’t worry I got it covered!” Louis insists. “He doesn’t use it to go to work or class, only when he visits friends or Gemma so I called them and made sure that if they wanted to hang out it would be at our flat so Harry doesn’t have to leave.”

Liam is silent for a couple of seconds. “Wait, and they’re on it too?”

“Obviously! They love me!”

Not quite right, actually. Gemma does love him though Louis suspects it is a little because of how easily Harry gets annoyed by her constantly smothering Louis with hugs and small gifts. Harry’s friends, however… are far from the type of people Louis would be comfortable spending an extended amount of times with. They are not mean to him — but Louis can feel when his presence is not appreciated and he has felt it every single time Harry has invited him to hang out with them.

Deep down he knows they think he is not good enough for Harry, especially with Harry’s history of sleeping around a bit before they started dating and how he probably pales in comparison with some more traditionally attractive people he’s been involved with. It doesn’t bother Louis, he’s secure enough in his relationship to not get affected. Harry is a bit oblivious to the situation, though. The issue is— Louis knows Harry has trouble letting go. These are friends he’s had since childhood, for most of them.

Liam is not their biggest fan either, and it shows in the way he grimaces.

“I feel like they’d most likely not ask Harry to hang out at all than come here. They’re never here unless there’s a party and free drinks,” the older boy comments, the disdain in his voice barely hidden.

Louis shrugs. “Then all the better I can keep Harry distracted there while you or Zayn take the car to the thingy.”

“But doesn’t he love to go on random drives when he’s bored?”

“Like I said, I’ll keep him entertained, don’t underestimate me like that Payne!”

“Oh, last names, that _is_ serious,” Liam says, blinking a bit. “So the whole scaring Harry into thinking the house is haunted and you’ve been possessed—” Louis can’t help but giggle at the succinct summary. It sounds so _stupid_. It might be because he is not a believer of such things, even if he’s the mastermind behind it. Perhaps he would actually be good at directing a horror movie after all, despite hating the genre.

“Will be on the 30th, but you’re gonna send the car to renovation three days before that?” Liam continues despite Louis seemingly zoning out for a few seconds. “We’re way ahead of schedule and you’re telling me Niall and Zayn already finished their parts? You told us about this last week.”

Louis chuckles. “They were _really_ excited.”

A long sigh escapes Liam’s lips. “I really hope you know Harry as much as you say you do.”

Just to mess with Liam a little more, Louis replies, “I don’t, since when do you trust me?”

The look of pure terror that appears on Liam’s face for reasons he really doesn’t understand is enough to tell Louis he doesn’t need to pull a prank on Liam too this year, poor thing seems tired.

-: ✧ :-

Liam and Zayn are having a competition. A pumpkin carving competition. It is not part of the plan, obviously, it is just for fun and to have pretty pumpkins decorating their windows. Midterms have been hitting them all pretty hard in the last few days and Harry suggested they spent some time together by carving pumpkins. So, this is a nice break from planning every single minute of the prank. It is a nice activity, something they, surprisingly, have never done before. Somehow, it feels more like a _family_ activity than a _friends_ activity but, Louis muses, it kind of fits them, really.

He doesn’t think anyone had expected for things to get this out of hand, though.

“You’re both super talented!” Louis whines. “Stop asking me to choose and please I can’t stand the smell of those pumpkins anymore!”

“But I need to know if I got better than Zayn!” Liam protests.

“And I can’t let him think he surpassed the teacher,” Zayn counters with a scowl.

“I’ve always been better at carving and sculpting than you and you just can’t admit it!”

And Louis found himself in the middle of this ridiculous dispute. Like often, when he thinks about it. 

Harry sits idly on the floor, surrounded by the dozens of pumpkins that have already been stabbed for the name of art — Louis seriously wonders how they even managed to afford all of these — as he just watches the scene unfold, an amused smile lifting his lips. Niall, on the other hand, has been putting away Louis’, Harry’s and his own pumpkin by their respective room, putting them next to the door with a string of Louis’ fairy lights connecting them.

“Harry is gonna trip on them at some point,” Louis had commented.

“Then so be it,” Niall dismissed, “it’s pretty.”

And now the Irish lad is simply avoiding the living room altogether.

“How about you two carve Louis’ face this time and then Niall and I can judge which one’s the best but you don’t tell us which one did which?” Harry suggests at last.

“You know what? We should have done that immediately, let’s do it,” Liam agrees and his opponent nods.

“On a time limit then, forty-five minutes,” Zayn supplies then.

“Wait, why my face?” Louis asks, completely weirded out. So far all the pumpkins just have generic Halloween-themed stuff on them, going from bats, just the standard pumpkin scary faces to literal monsters that the two somehow managed to put on there.

“Because they’ve got the most practice with you,” Harry explains as he stands up, quickly enveloping his boyfriend in a bear hug. “Which is why you’re coming with me and they’re going to have to do that by memory.” The two artists surprisingly do not protest at that and only shrug. “Besides we gotta check on Niall.”

Fair enough, Louis concedes. So he lets Harry lead him away with a small wave and mouthing a “good luck” that gets lost in the intense concentration Liam and Zayn are already displaying. God, it’s also gonna be a mess to clean up now that he thinks about it.

As soon as they are out of sight with the door closing behind them, Harry lets out a long, relieved sigh.

“Do you reckon it’s the first time they’re fighting over a pumpkin rather than Louis,” Niall’s voice, surprisingly close, startles them. “Hey boys, I’ve just been sitting there, to be honest. It’s fun to listen to them, but not to witness it in person, y’know. Too intense in there.”

And indeed, Niall is just standing there in the empty hallway, phone now turned off in his hand as he gives Louis and Harry his full attention.

“Yeah they need to chill out,” Louis groans but there is still a smile on his lips. “How do I always end up in the middle of these kinds of things?”

“Don’t play clueless you damn know why,” Harry says with a roll of his eyes. Louis only shrugs in response while Niall snorts. “Come on, we’ve got forty-five minutes, let’s go watch a show or something until they’re done.”

“Cuddle time!” Louis exclaims happily, grabbing Harry’s and Niall’s hands in both of these but then they are the one taking the lead, walking in front of him towards his room like they’ve done this a hundred times before. And they have. He smiles to himself.

An hour later, Liam wins. Louis has to stop Zayn from _literally_ flipping the table. Then Niall has to restrain him when Liam decides he wants some Louis time alone and grabs him then makes a run for his own room.

Harry only huffs while he watches. Dysfunctional family, they are.

Now. What are they supposed to do with all those pumpkins?

-: ✧ :-

October passes relatively quickly after that, with Harry remaining clueless over what his roommates are planning behind his back, despite how many times the three others meet up in Zayn’s studio to plot the whole scheme.

Just like right now.

“He naps a lot, is he okay?” Niall finally comments at some point after they’ve reviewed for probably the hundredth time Liam’s schedule for the plan.

“Exams and work are kicking his butt, law school is really no joke I guess” Louis replies, “I feel almost bad planning all this knowing how tired he is.” He shrugs. “He’s gonna laugh after it though.”

“You still haven’t told us what’s your surprise for the next day,” Zayn points out.

Louis actually flushes. It is enough of an answer for Zayn and Liam who yell out a loud “Alright!” but Niall, on the contrary, looks more intrigued. Louis throws a brush his way, aiming for his forehead but hitting his nose instead because for some reason the Irish guy did not even bother to try to duck.

“I’m just gonna need one of you to get the car back from the garage in the morning while I have Harry distracted.”

“I’ll do it, I wanna be the first one to see what abomination it’s gonna be,” Zayn offers himself, already chuckling under his breath.

“Are you even sure he’s not gonna love it?” Liam asks. “I mean, I feel like it would be very Harry of him to enjoy a pink glittery à la Barbie car.”

“Perhaps he’ll secretly like it but his snobby friends are definitely gonna be teasing him ‘bout it,” Niall says and yeah, he’s not their biggest fan either. No one in the flat is, really. Harry is oblivious to that fact as well.

He’s oblivious to a lot of things.

“Then that will teach him to value the things he enjoys above his friends’ judgement,” Louis huffs out. “But no he’s gonna hate it in the moment. He’ll laugh a few days later and enjoy driving us around the pink mobile though.”

“You sound really confident about it.” Louis only nods with a nonchalant shrug.

“Anyway,” Zayn cuts in, “so I went a little overboard with the paintings and I doubt we’ll use all of them,” he says, pointing at a bunch of them hidden under a white sheet in the corner of the room. 

“I remember specifically requesting only one,” Louis deadpans. “We only need one. I want Harry to be spooked for one second not entirely redecorate the flat in horror portraits of myself, your and Liam’s pumpkins take enough place as it is.”

“You know me I get carried away!” Zayn defends himself. “Plus we can use them for decoration for the party then, they won’t notice it’s supposed to be you.”

“Oh, they’ll know,” Liam says.

“How would they know?”

“Because there’s the model right there?” Niall replies.

Zayn huffs. “And what’s the matter anyway?”

“People are already starting to think this flat’s a weird cult around Louis,” is the reason Liam gives with a weak chuckle.

“Isn’t it?” Louis asks, a hint of amusement in his voice as he wills his face to remain as neutral as possible.

“He could burn this flat down and we’d _apologise_ for leaving him alone,” Zayn adds on to which Niall opens his mouth, probably to argue, but then closes it and nods with a small “uh, true” escaping his lips instead.

“About that, Zaynie, you might want to know that last April fools I helped Harry cover your studio in glitter and sticky notes,” Louis confesses if only to test Zayn’s words. He is pretty sure that one day his curiosity will be the death of him.

Niall and Liam both sense the exact moment Zayn takes his decision and then lunges at Louis, tackling him on the floor, papers flying around as the two of them playfully wrestle around in a fit of giggles — on Louis’ part that is, Zayn seems to only be muttering “you little minx why do I even like you” over and over again.

After a while, Liam decides he should separate them before they knock over some paint or one of Zayn’s paintings, effortlessly grabbing Louis out of Zayn’s grasp when he sees the opportunity to. Liam just doesn’t expect, however, the latter to then grab _his_ sleeve and bring him down with the two of them, a yelp escaping his lips as he turns around so his back meets the floor in a loud thump instead of Louis.

He can _feel_ Louis smiling hard against his chest.

“See, first instincts, protecting Louis,” Zayn says after a small pause, breath a little uneven.

“Mate we’re like, his boyfriends, but without the bonus stuff that comes with the title,” Niall comments.

“Oi you’ve got cuddles, don’t complain,” Louis says as he turns around in Liam’s arms, apparently comfortable there despite the awkward position for the boy under him.

“Harry is so open about what you two do in the bedroom anyway it feels like we’re part of it sometimes,” Liam mutters.

Louis groans at that, pinching his nose. Fortunately enough, Harry only overshares with the other boys and not with anyone else but for the guy who insisted they kept their relationship between them for a while, he sure did not expect him to then almost gloat about it now to their roommates who most certainly can hear them most of the time.

He is about to express those thoughts out loud but then a knock on the door makes them all freeze before it opens with a still sleepy-looking Harry given the unruly curls in front of his eyes.

“Oh you’re all here,” the law student mutters, frowning as his eyes fall on Louis half laid down on top of Liam. “Pixie come back to cuddle with me.”

It is not a suggestion and Louis perfectly knows it with the way Harry doesn’t sound whiny but actually rather commanding.

“Sorry mate,” Zayn speaks up before Louis has the time to process, helping the latter to get up. “I was teaching Liam about anatomy since he’s practising drawing bodies and I needed Louis there to model for a bit then Niall came in and we got sidetracked.”

Harry only grunts in response, making grabby hands towards his boyfriend. Liam smiles fondly — though he doesn’t bother standing up — while Niall is the one who nudges Louis forward. Louis makes a noise with the back of his throat as he looks at Harry with slight worry.

Harry usually isn’t this possessive around the other boys. He wonders if Harry did in fact notice him sneaking away to meet up with them a lot recently even if just unconsciously.

“Alright alright grumpy cat,” Louis coos, at last, bringing his hands up to pat Harry’s cheeks so he would stop pouting and let dimples pop up there instead, “how about we order in so we can have a movie night and all cuddle in the living room later?”

“Mm, only me for now though, come on,” Harry replies, grabbing Louis’ wrist and promptly leading him out of the studio.

Zayn, Liam and Niall all share a look. That technically wasn’t a yes or no answer.

“Pizzas?” Niall throws in.

“Pizzas,” the other two agree.

-: ✧ :-

Harry is tired, is the thing. So when he comes home after a long day at work he doesn’t really question all the lights being off, despite how early it is for everyone to already be asleep, especially since as far as he’s concerned, they all wait for each other before eating dinner. He just walks blindly, utterly used to those walls he’s been living in for almost four years now until he finally hears sounds from the living room. He carefully opens the door to see Louis’ laptop showcasing the recorded play of _Legally Blonde The Musical_ , right in the middle of Elle Woods’ triumphant _So Much Better_ song which Harry finds himself humming along to as he carefully tiptoes his way inside, finding, as expected, a curled up asleep Louis on the couch.

“Go figure,” he sighs lovingly.

Louis looks really cute, but Harry also knows that if he wakes up now he’s gonna be all whiny about his back hurting even if it really doesn’t because the couch is uncharacteristically big and fluffy. He leans down, about to grab Louis around when a static noise behind him startles him. Confused, he looks behind him, stifling a yelp when he sees that the cheerful musical playing on the laptop suddenly changed a seemingly old recording of _Ring_ , just as the little girl-looking creature advances towards the screen. Harry is about to just close the laptop when Louis suddenly groans softly. Harry blinks and the screen switches back to _Legally Blonde._ Harry doesn’t question it too much, deciding to focus his attention on Louis instead who slowly sits up, smiling wide once he sees Harry. Or at least Harry likes to think he’s smiling big going by the tone of his voice — he can’t really see well at the moment.

“Haz!” the younger boy greets. “What time is it?”

“A little after 8 PM I think,” Harry replies, finding his voice just a little shaky. Hopefully, Louis doesn’t notice. “Where is everyone and why are the lights off?”

Louis seems confused for a few seconds before he looks around. “Oh yeah, sorry still half-asleep,” he mumbles, rubbing his eyes a little. “Uh, the electricity went out and Liam’s supposed to sort it out but I don’t know, he hasn’t come back yet. Zayn and Niall went out to buy dinner since we couldn’t cook, dunno where they are, my phone’s dead though and I can’t charge it, so.”

Harry frowns. “And they left you alone when you’re so easily scared? I will have to have a talk with them.” Unfortunately, his phone is also on low battery right now.

“Oh come on I’m not that much of a hopeless case—” They both jump as what appears to be an eerie laugh resonates in the air. Louis lets out a nervous chuckle. “Uh— did you hear that?”

Harry frowns because yes, he did, and it was oddly clear, and if he had to guess it kind of sounded like it came from the kitchen. He turns around, about to check for himself when Louis suddenly grabs his hand, keeping him there.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?!” Louis asks, voice slightly edging towards panic.

“Well, you heard the laugh, sounded like it came from there so I’m gonna check.”

“Do you have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever?!”

Harry chuckles. Apparently not.

“You’re bloody loud, I don’t think it counts as self-preservation if a threat is in the house right now,” Harry counters.

He can’t see, but somehow he knows Louis is now pouting. “Just— Don’t leave me alone,” Louis mumbles next, tightening his hold on Harry’s hand. Harry smiles despite the unsettling feeling still deep in his being.

“Here you were saying you could handle it alone,” he teases his boyfriend.

“Don’t make fun of me! It’s because of your stupid horror movies I’m paranoid now.”

“I thought you did not believe in ghosts?”

He expects Louis to huff and confirm that statement but instead, he feels him shake a little.

“I— I don’t… I don’t know, today has been weird. Headaches, voices… Zayn said it’s because this year there would be a full moon on Halloween or something but like, that’s tomorrow. Liam said it’s a lack of sleep. Niall said… nothing actually, he just brushed it off.”

Harry hums and is about to respond when lights suddenly start flickering, the deafening silence somehow making it worse. Louis yelps, obviously startled as he jumps forward to hug Harry close and hide his face in his chest. Harry quickly wraps his arms around him, hand soothing the back of Louis’ head by gently massaging his scalp but then his eyes catch something in the opposite wall that definitely wasn’t there before.

His breath hitches and his grip on Louis tightens, preventing the latter from moving and seeing what caused such a reaction, though Louis makes a questioning noise, muffled against him.

In the distance is what he swears to be a pale portrait of Louis just below Liam’s shelf of business books. At first glance, he almost thought it was simply another portrait Zayn did that he decided to hang on for some strange reason but upon more observation, he notices that something is just… not quite right.

Louis’ eyes are red and dripping black and the smile on his lips is inhumanly wide.

“Did you hear that?!” Louis, the real one, suddenly exclaims, making Harry jump just as the lights stop flickering and darkness surrounds them again — Louis’ laptop having shut off as well in the meantime.

“Hear what?” Harry asks, trying to keep his voice steady.

“That’s a no, oh god I’m going crazy,” Louis mumbles, pulling away. Harry is about to bring him closer again, unable to admit to himself that he might be a teensy tiny scared when the lights turn on… and stay on.

Louis lets out a long sigh of relief and Harry wants to follow but then he notices that the portrait on which was hanging in front of him had somehow vanished.

He couldn’t have imagined it, now, could he?

“Electricity’s back!” Louis excitedly states. “Alright, Liam shouldn’t be too long I guess.”

Louis leaves Harry’s arms and starts walking away but this time, Harry is the one who catches him before he can walk away too far.

“Hold on, we still— there’s still something odd. Are you sure the others are not here?”

“You know them, we would have known if they were here they can’t keep quiet to save a life,” Louis snickers. “Okay perhaps Zayn can but Liam and Niall definitely not.”

“You’re underestimating them I think.”

“And you’re overestimating them,” Louis counters. “Come on, let’s get our phones charged and call them, I’m starving.”

And just like that, Louis grabs his phone that now Harry realises has been laying turned off next to the laptop and leaves the room. Harry hesitates only for a few seconds before following suit. It is a lot less scary when the lights are on, he has to admit.

Of course, as soon as he starts going upstairs, the lights turn off again and Harry nearly trips on his way up. He quickly grabs the handrail when he misses a step and groans to himself. So much for fixing electricity, Harry curses Liam under his breath. He swears he hears another faint laugh in the distance that oddly sounded similar to Louis’ tone.

This time, he can’t pinpoint where it exactly comes from before the lights flicker again and the portrait appears at the end of the hallway. Harry shivers and debates if he should come back down and wait for Louis, eyes unable to be torn away from the painting as the red eyes stare back at him but then he hears Louis _scream_ and he doesn’t _think_. He jumps up the remaining steps and rushes through the hallway, straight to Louis’ room. The fairy lights still lit up on the floor provide him with a semblance of guidance so he doesn’t just run into a wall or a shelf.

He bursts through Louis’ door, in perfect timing with the lights coming back on again and finding his boyfriend curled up beside his bed, head in his hands. Harry slowly makes his way towards him, carefully kneeling down.

“Harry…” Louis whines as he turns around and immediately falls into Harry’s arms, hiding his face in his chest.

“Ssh, what is it? Everything’s alright Lou,” Harry soothes him, rubbing his back.

This is odd, and that probably should tip him off. Louis gets scared easily, he is skittish, always moving and alert, but it usually doesn’t last. With his stubbornness and urge to prove that he is brave — which he _is_ , but not exactly in the sense he _wants_ to be — Louis tends to brush away his fears and then try to find logical reasons as to what happened. It is one of the many paradoxical things about Louis Tomlinson, never scared of being vulnerable with them, open with his emotions and his need to feel loved but when he’s scared, he denies it. His fierce hatred for horror movies is enough proof of that.

So really, this _is_ strange.

“Hurts…” Louis whimpers softly against him, back straightening when they both hear the wind pick up outside, beating against the window, accompanied by… by a music box? Harry frowns, looking around, confused and unsettled.

Wait, didn’t Liam gift Niall a music box for his birthday?

He snaps out of his thoughts when Louis starts to tug at his sleeves. He looks down at his boyfriend and holds back a gasp. Louis frowns.

“What?” the smaller boy asks, annoyance slowly building upon his face at Harry’s silence.

“Your— uh I mean. Your eyes—”

“What?” Louis repeats, a devilish smile now forming on his lips. His eyes are red, is the thing, and Harry should be worried, but he’s fascinated instead.

He reaches forward, gently grabbing Louis’ face and pulling a startled noise out of the smaller boy. Louis seems confused for only a few seconds before he catches on, smiling and closing the gap between their lips himself.

Harry hums, getting lost in the feeling and momentarily forgetting the strange evening that just occurred — and his empty stomach — until he feels Louis chuckle against his lips. He pulls back, frowning when Louis just keeps laughing, curling into himself with the force of it.

“Pixie what the fuck—”

“Now!” Louis shouts instead and with two claps of his hands, the lights in the room go out and he hears the door close behind him. At this point, he is more disturbed than scared as Louis’ laugh continues to hang in the air. Blindly, he tries to reach Louis again but finds nothing so instead he stands up, only to be met with a body right behind him when he tries to carefully retrace his step towards the door.

He yelps as a “Boo!” is whispered in his ear — and he definitely recognises Niall’s voice this time — but then the presence behind him disappears and he almost stumbles backwards.

“Guys this isn’t funny!” he complains, finally connecting the dots together and just as he expresses his frustration, the lights come back again, blinding him and he completely loses his balance. 

He screams, actually screams this time, because of course, his demise would be his inherent clumsiness as his feet get caught up with some of Louis’ discarded clothes and he falls on his back with a loud thump.

“No fun I couldn’t scare him one last time with the portrait!” Zayn’s whiny voice is the first thing he registers as he rubs the back of his head. The second thing is Louis looming over him, a worried yet amused expression on his face. He props himself on his elbows, Louis following the motion and then sitting down on his laps, as he looks around the room, seeing Niall idly sat on the bed, dangling his legs in an exaggerated manner while Zayn and Liam are standing closer, the former holding the said portrait in his hands.

“This was… All of this was just a prank, wasn’t it…” Harry sighs yet he can’t help smiling when Louis excitedly nods, bouncing a little on his laps. Harry has to physically stop him by holding his waist.

“You weren’t supposed to get turned on though so uh, had to improvise there, sorry,” Louis chuckles, cheeks a little red. “Didn’t mean for you to fall and almost concuss yourself.”

“You had more planned?!” Harry exclaims.

“Well, it’s too late now,” Zayn laments. “This is underwhelming, to be honest.”

Harry glares because the guy sounds way too sad about that fact. He runs a hand across his face, stifling another groan because at this rate his throat is starting to hurt.

“How did you all even pull that off?” he asks at last.

“Oh yeah I was doing the lights and stuff, Niall gave me signals via texts,” Liam says.

“I was the sound guy, obviously,” Niall jumps in.

“And I had to quietly run around to scare you with my painting, Louis made sure to distract you so you wouldn’t hear me,” Zayn ends, not being able to stop the laugh from escaping his mouth. “Honestly surprised you didn’t recognise my style, actually. Also, fuck, I’m spent I had to hide and move quickly while the two others barely had to move.”

Louis rolls his eyes.

“I hate you all,” Harry groans. Now his throat definitely hurts.

“I gotta say, very cute how protective of Lou you became,” Niall coos, “I mean I already knew that would happen but it was cute nonetheless.”

“He planned all this by the way,” Liam says immediately.

“Technically, _you_ did,” Zayn corrects. “Louis thought of the whole idea, you made it possible.”

“Still taking full credits,” Louis butts in, grinning down at Harry with his unnatural red eyes. “Admit it was funny though.”

“It was,” Harry admits with a defeated sigh, “impressive too, I have to say,” he praises next, patting Louis’ head who hums with glee.

Zayn nudges Liam who sends him a slight glare at the gesture. “Told you, first instincts, protect Louis, even if he’s the source of the problem.”

“Wouldn’t call that a problem, though,” Liam points out as he watches Niall jump on the couple, creating a small cuddle pile on the floor with Louis squished in between them.

Zayn smiles, letting out a soft chuckle. “No, definitely not.”

“Gotta say though,” Liam comments, eyes on Harry but voice low so he doesn’t hear, “he wouldn’t survive in a horror movie with how easily he got sidetracked like seriously? Louis with contact lenses is a turn on for him?”

Zayn snorts. “None of us would survive, let’s be honest. We’re idiots.”

-: ✧ :-

Early in the morning the next day, Louis manages to get out of Harry’s arms without waking the other boy. On his way back to his own room he sees Zayn, fully dressed, silently close the door to his room. Their eyes meet in a silent conversation and then Zayn smiles wide, getting a pair of keys out of his flannel’s pocket and dangling them a little with a delighted glint in his eyes. Louis reciprocates the smile, stopping himself from jumping on his feet. Zayn mouths “Good luck” before turning around and then heads to the front door. Louis breathes in for a few seconds to settle down and hurries back to his room for the next part of the plan: distraction. And a little bit of pleasure while he is at it.

 _It’s going to be a bitch to remove_ , he thinks as he slips in the fishnet over his thighs, grimacing slightly at the new odd feeling but quickly getting used to it as he moves and stretches his limbs, testing the flexibility. No tearing, good. He then grabs the red skirt and quickly slips it on, securing a belt with a fake pointy tail attached to it around his waist. He turns around, bending his back to get a look in the mirror and hums to himself. He’s not comfortable enough to wear dresses or skirts outside but he has been having a lot of fun just wearing some in the comfort of his room and every once in a while, Harry — and Zayn but again he’s another story — appreciates the surprise as well.

Paired with a simple black t-shirt, he doesn’t feel like he’s actually wearing a costume, if he forgot the silly headband with horns and the belt-tail, it just looks like a regular outfit. Not a regular _Louis_ outfit, though. He suspiciously eyes the contact lenses still left unpacked on his bedside table and decides that he might as well put more spice to his costume. He takes one last look at himself in the mirror first, twirling once or twice and smiling to himself before he sits down on the floor and scoots a little closer to properly put on the contacts.

He blinks twice before they settle in and he has to squint a bit in order to see his own reflection without it being blurry but he lets out a small “oh” upon realising that the yellow of the contact lenses mixed in with his natural blue give a slight greenish tint to his eyes now. _He loves it_. He hopes Harry does too since it is the whole point after all. With a last small pep talk, he gets up with a determined look on his face.

Louis quietly slips back into Harry’s room, satisfied to see that the other boy hasn’t budged at all, still fiercely hugging the pillow Louis had placed there to replace him. He smiles as he slowly climbs over Harry’s legs, sitting there and then leaning down to nuzzle on Harry’s jaw, the very very subtle hint of a stubble scratching his nose as he does so. He feels Harry’s breath catch up in his throat as he starts kissing his neck and face. When he feels Harry slowly start to wake up, he gets more adventurous, nibbling slightly on Harry’s skin, creating one or two bruises on his neck and collarbone before he feels a hand grip his chin, another grab the back of his head, and then familiar lips are pressing firmly against his.

Louis pleasantly hums into it but is still the one who pulls back first to see Harry sleepily blink his eyes open, eyes unfocused.

“Good morning love, happy Halloween,” Louis greets with a large smile. He isn’t wearing any fake fangs, he should have probably, but they most likely would have fallen off while he was sucking some hickeys on his boyfriend’s skin.

“Good way to wake up, that’s for sure,” Harry groggily replies, rubbing his eyes before he seemingly just freezes, eyes going wide as he looks Louis up and down at least seven times before speaking again, “Am I hallucinating or are you dressed as a demon?”

“Do you fantasise about that so much that you think this is a hallucination?”

“Yes,” Harry bluntly responds which still manages to surprise Louis who lets out a small chuckle while Harry straightens himself, his back now against the headboard and Louis following the motion, making himself comfortable.

“Well it’s real, your own little devil on your shoulder— or well, your laps, rather.”

“My little devil?” Harry repeats with a side smile as he reaches behind Louis to grab his tail and twirl it around his fingers for a few moments. “It is a nice surprise to wake up to, hope you didn’t do that with the others when you pranked them though.”

Louis tilts his head to the side. “Why should I?” He smiles sweetly while Harry frowns, tugging at the tail to bring Louis closer. He is surprised, however, by how tight the belt holding the fake tail is around Louis’ waist as it doesn’t twist at all.

“Absolutely not,” he says once he stops being distracted, looking up at Louis again. Only then does he notice the lack of the familiar and lovely blue in his eyes. He gasps. “Wait are you— wearing yellow lenses?”

“Yeah, do they suit me?” Louis proudly asks. “I think I like it better than the red ones. I still can’t see shit since these aren’t prescribed but, you know, semantics.”

“You look super cute,” Harry confirms, “but don’t they strain your eyes?”

“A little but I’ll live, I’ll get them off once I’m done—” Louis cuts himself off, kissing Harry instead. The latter startles a little but welcomes it, hands gripping Louis’ jaw to coax his mouth open. He whimpers softly, letting Harry take full control of the kiss so he can slide his hand down Harry’s torso without the latter paying it any mind.

Soon, his fingers graze Harry’s crotch and he is pleased to be met with an obvious bulge already there. He presses the heels of his hand to it, earning a groan from Harry who pulls away, smiling now that he is catching up with Louis’ plan.

“Did you want to wake me up with a blowjob, peach?”

Louis hums, gently pressing their noses together. “Mm, I would have but then I realised we never discussed that,” he admits, “is that permission for another time?”

“Definitely,” Harry grins, stifling another groan when Louis suddenly sits upright on top of his morning wood. Louis smiles mischievously and Harry grips him by the waist, fingers digging. “I will have to return the favour someday, fuck, would love to fuck you awake.”

Louis’ breath catches in his throat at that as he eagerly nods while grinding down on Harry, both of them shuddering at the slow friction. “We really should have discussed that before now I just wanna go back to sleep just so you can do that.”

“Another time another time,” Harry assures after stealing one kiss. “For now, peach, please focus.”

Of course, Louis pulls away and immediately stops his ministrations, mouth opening in fake offence. Harry doesn’t even bother groaning in annoyance. “Excuse you, I’m the devil here, I have the upper hand.”

“Sure you do,” Harry says in a dismissive tone, already flipping them over. Louis yelps, hands flying to his headband so that his horns don’t fall off his head. Exposed like this, however, Harry finally has a proper look on his legs and the boy seems to just freeze. Louis doesn’t know if it’s good or not until he notices Harry’s eyes dilate and he gulps with anticipation.

“Fuck, Lou,” Harry whispers.

“That’s the plan,” Louis quips.

Harry snorts. “That’s my line.”

So maybe Harry influenced him a little.

“Harry…” he whines, wiggling a little because Harry is still holding one of his legs up and it is starting to hurt.

“Oh, sorry peach.” Harry lets go but his hands remain on Louis’ thighs, feeling them up as he leans down again, capturing Louis’ lips in his for a moment.

As Harry pulls back with a dark glint in his eyes, lips forming a half-smile as he lets his fingers play with Louis’ fishnets, pulling at the strings every now and then Louis concedes that, perhaps, Harry should be the one with a fucking devil costume on.

-: ✧ :-

Louis was right, the fishnets were a bitch to remove. Harry ended up tearing them in his eagerness before promising to buy him new ones — even though it isn’t like Louis wears those on a daily basis. Nah, they’re for Harry’s eyes only and well, the other boys too if they happen to catch a glimpse of him, he guesses.

His only issue is that he doesn’t have a costume anymore for their Halloween party tonight but… if things go as he has imagined, he won’t need a new costume anyway.

They now lay in bed again after having quickly cleaned up, Louis’ horns and tail discarded in a corner of the room while he removed the yellow contact lenses, feeling pretty free now that he could see a little clearer. Just a little, he still needed his glasses, but not right now. 

Harry is the little spoon for once, Louis insisted it was part of the whole “I’m sorry about the prank” thing. Harry did not object.

The silence is pleasant but neither of them needs any kind of sleep now, fully awake yet refusing to get up and go on with their day. Louis figures that they are just gonna wait for either Liam or Niall to prepare breakfast and then call them downstairs.

“Do you have to go out today?” Louis asks eventually.

“Yeah, I’m gonna drop something at Gemma’s before the party.”

Louis grins against Harry’s shoulder. “Okay good. Your car’s keys are in Zayn’s room.”

Harry frowns at that, trying to send a confused look his boyfriend’s way probably now only realising that he hasn’t even used his car in a week or so. “And why… why would they be there?”

“You’ll see.”

“I don’t like this.”

A few hours later, an embarrassed red-faced Harry bursts through the front door, making a beeline towards Louis. The other boys quickly get out of the way, shouting “good luck” over their shoulders as they flee to their own rooms, Niall even inviting himself in Zayn’s, as Louis lets himself be thrown over Harry’s shoulder and taken to his room, not really hiding his delight.

They don’t end up going to the party, the door to Louis’ room remaining firmly locked.

**Author's Note:**

> I really do enjoy writing pointless light-hearted fics like this as if it was still 2013 or something. I got lazy at the smut part pardon me, I kind of drained my capability of writing smut in uuh,,, other fics coming up soon.
> 
> [Tumblr](https://lwtisloved.tumblr.com/post/632615008373702656/) — [Twitter](https://twitter.com/darlinlou) (+ [fic account](https://twitter.com/myenglishrose_))
> 
> Thank you for reading, dear, may our paths meet again x


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